At Goat Farm, a chef-turned-knifesmith forges blades by hand

David Sturgis uses recycled metal and scraps of wood gathered on the property
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Photographs by Neda Abghari
Photographs by Neda Abghari

Thirty-six-year-old David Sturgis was once the chef at Farm 255 in Athens and later at Muss & Turner’s in Smyrna, but today you can find him in the machine shop at the Goat Farm, forging light carbon steel knives by hand for local chefs. From a shallot knife for Zeb Stevenson of Parish to the two-handed Dutch cheese knife for Tim Gaddis, Star Provisions’ former cheese honcho, Sturgis uses recycled metal—often from old band saw blades, which are hard yet flexible—and scraps of wood gathered on the property. His prices fluctuate. “Six hundred dollars if you are a snooty designer and you just want it because it is cool,” he says. “A lot less if you are a chef.”

This aritcle originally appeared in our August 2014 issue under the headline “Blades of Steel.”

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